A week later we were moved into a small apartment that no one would imagine a princess and a rocker to live in. Our landlady was a little Italian woman who didn't really speak very good English. I gave her some flowers the day we officially moved in.

"Sweet girl," she said taking in the scent. "You come for supper on Sunday, yes?"

I smiled, "I'll try to come down."

Then Michael and I christened each room that night leading into the next morning. Our new bed hadn't arrived yet so we were sleeping on the living room floor. "We're so lucky we remembered to buy strawberries," I said feeding him one.

"Yesh," he said chewing. "This is perfect. Good tunes on the radio. Got my girl naked in my arms. How can I go wrong?"

"Well, not handing me a strawberry could be one way," I teased.

We started rehearsing for the MTV Video awards. We were performing Tall Glass Of Water, which was nominated for video of the year. I had to go to a stylist for my hair and everything, which totally was not me. Not the New York me at least. It was the Genovian me.

"So…" Michael said from the other side of the door in our apartment. I was putting on my dress.

"What?" I asked, trying to figure out how to wear my clothes without anything falling out.

"Um, are we officially coming out tonight…you know, as a couple and stuff?" he asked. I could just picture him standing out there; biting the corner of his lower lip and running his hands through his hair.

I peeked out. "Come on in and help me," I said with a smile.

He came in, "Wow, that's a really hot skirt."

"It's for the performance. I have a dress for the show itself."

I was nervous about wearing it. Sebastino had picked out my clothes. I was wearing a worn out mini shirt (but it covered everything necessary), and a really funky top. Seb had come over the night before with some old concert t-shirts that be got off of E-bay (yes, we royals buy off of the internet). He had ripped them apart and then sewed them together. The top left corner was Rolling Stones. The top right was Nirvana. The bottom was Green Day, Sloan and Weezer. It sound atrocious, but he made it look totally cool.

"Well, what about my shirt?" I asked. "Like?"

He stood back and smiled. "That's awesome. But I think everyone is going to be checking out your legs babe. How'd they get so smooth?"

He had teased me the night before because I hadn't shaven.

"I got a wax earlier," I said rolling my eyes and searching for my shoes.

"Come on, hurry. The limo is going to be here any minute. And we still haven't discussed if we're coming out or not."

"Coming out?" I asked slipping into my sneaker. Yes, I was wearing low rise Converse sneakers. I couldn't easily play in fancy shoes. I stared at my reflection.

"As a couple."

"Oh, um, sure. What do you think?" I asked, looking right up at him.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he said, hiding a smile. He was excited about showing me off.

And I was just as excited about showing him off.

"Okay, I have to get into my dress now."

I love, love, love my dress. It's strapless with a white background and black flowers, and a corset type thing that actually made it look like I had breasts.

"Wow," was all Michael could muster as I left our room.

I stood there, watching as he gaped at me. "Weren't you just yelling at me to move? That the limo-"

"Right, right," he said opening the front door. "By the way," he started as I walked past him.

"Yes?"

"You look beautiful."

Which means sooo much more than hot, at least in Michael talk. He once explained it to me. Hot was something that fades. You get all old and wrinkly. Beauty stays forever.

"Michael! Michael! Over here!" Maria Menunos said, waving us over. We had survived leaving the limo. I felt totally underdressed, but still got compliments on it from all the boys. We were officially going as a group, but we'd let the interviewers infer what they would by our body language.

"Hey there Maria," Manny and Kevin said cheerfully. Orlando ran to catch up with them. Michael and I stood back. His hand on the small of my back.

"Hey Michael, Mia…"

"Hi," he mumbled. He was so terribly nervous. He hated live interviews. His shoulders were hunched over.

"We're here with the hot rock group Glass of Water," she said into the camera. "How you guys feeling?"

Michael and I slunk to the back a little and let the others talk. I knew she'd come to us with the question that had been running around in the tabloids all summer. He took my hand and whispered, "You look beautiful baby."

"We haven't gotten too much heat," I whispered, crinkling my nose, looking up at him.

He put his sunglasses on me to shield me from the sunlight. "Not too much," he agreed.

"Thanks for the glasses."

"You look cute in them," he whispered.

I smiled and was about to say something when the questions turned to us. "Mia, I love your dress…it's so different from what we've seen on your before for music events."

Was that a question? "Yes. I decided to be girly tonight."

"She's wearing heels and every thing," Kevin went on.

"We told her she had to dress up," Michael said, looking lovingly at me, "She's our princess so she should dress like one."

Maria made an 'awww' face. "SO, rumors true or false?"

I looked up at him for the answer and he put on his rock star smile, "Well, what do you think?"

She gave me a look.

"I am a woman in love," I admitted.

Michael squeezed my hand.

She then turned to Michael. The other's looked highly amused that we were being questioned. "And you, sir?"

He shrugged, "I dunno about that," he teased.

I gave him a smirk.

"We'll see how I feel later then," I teased back to him.

"Yes, I'm madly in love," he admitted quickly. Maria was laughing like an idiot. Wearing a gown that could feed a third world country for years.

"You know you are breaking millions of women's hearts around the world? Including mine," she said rubbing his arm.

I smiled at Manny, who was making a face. "I've waited long enough for this. You girls had plenty of time to find me," he said with a cocky grin. "I think we better go inside now. Nice meeting with you Maria."

"Wait, wedding bells?" she asked

Michael turned even paler than he already was.

"We're just enjoying things how they are," I explained. Geez, was it sooo terrible that she was hoping we'd marry?

"There you go, John. The Justin and Britney of the rock world. Back to ya."

We cringed when she said this. We all know how that turned out. He was dating a huge movie star and she was…well, white trash.

My new sneakers were cutting up my ankles. Before we were to go on stage to perform I was rubbing my ankles. "What's wrong?" Michael asked, walking by.

"Look," I said showing him and hopping on one foot.

He made a face. "Take them off."

"I can't-"

"If Britney can make out with Madonna, the dude from Rage Against the Machine can go spastic, you can perform with no shoes."

So I did. I knew the camera was focused on them at one point, making me completely paranoid. I don't know what got into me though. It was kind of a relief. I really had the best performance ever.

It didn't hurt that Michael came up behind me and was practically singing the song to me. Guitar sex ensued.

We changed for the after parties. I was wearing jeans and a tank top with some flip flops. Michael was wearing a plain black shirt and black jeans. We'll work on his fashion later.

It was nice. To finally be able to kiss in front of everyone. We didn't care if people caught it on the camera and that it'd be a news story on Entertainment Tonight. Or that it'd be dubbed a Justin and Britney type relationship. We knew the truth.

"I kind of wish you were wearing that skirt again," he whispered huskily into my ear while we sat on the couch of the host. I couldn't remember who the host was to be honest. We were shuttled there.

"Why is that?" I asked, nibbling his ear.

"Easier access," he teased, rubbing my inner thigh.

I watched as he did this and licked my lips. "Come on. Let's go find somewhere."

He laughed, "Are you serious baby?"

"Totally."

He jumped up and picked me up so I had to wrap my legs around him. "Watch out, get out of the way," he yelled to the grinding couples.

We settled on the limousine. I would have never imagined it'd be like this with Michael. I had been so naïve, believing that each and every time would be beautiful and romantic. I never took into account that there would be times that I would just want to do it. That it was a momentary thing that had to be quenched.